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7 outsourcing nightmares — and how to avoid them
Outsourcing IT functions can be a smart business move, particularly if your organization lacks specific expertise. IT infrastructure, networking, application development, help desk — plenty of high-quality service providers are available to fulfill your IT needs.
But like other major business and technology initiatives, outsourcing comes with risks, regardless of how experienced the outsourcing provider is or how good the move looked initially.
Outsourcer employee turnover, communication breakdowns, shortsighted contracts: They can all sink an arrangement, resulting in lost opportunities, downtime, or worse.
The Prop. 32 Effect
As the election results came in late Tuesday night, it became abundantly clear that the handful of billionaires and CEOs who sought to silence our voice were in for a rude awakening. Their deceptive measure, Prop. 32, didn’t just fail, it tanked — by a 12-point margin.
Executive Secretary-Treasurer Art Pulaski:
For the third time in the last 14 years, California voters rejected an attempt to shut working people out of the political process. The message voters sent the wealthy interests behind Prop 32 could not have been clearer. Californians categorically reject power plays designed by a few in the 1% to rig the system to their favor. S
Gartner upbeat on big data jobs
The economic picture that Gartner’s head of research, Peter Sondergaard, painted at his firm’s recent Symposium/ITxpo conference in Orlando was upbeat in a surprising way.
While Gartner isn’t significantly raising its global IT growth forecast — which it revised downward earlier in the year — its relatively flat forecast doesn’t apply to at least one sector of IT: the big data labor market.
Big data, which refers to the vast amounts of information collected from every imaginable source, is becoming an engine of job creation as businesses strive to harness and analyze that data in order to glean revenue-generating insights from it, according to Gartner.
Between now and 2015, the firm expects big data to create some 4.4 million IT jobs globally; of those, 1.9 million will be in the U.S.
Open Letter to Building Trades About Mitt Romney’s Record as Governor of Massachusetts
Frank Callahan, president of the Massachusetts Building Trades Council, sends us this open letter.
I am sure that many of you share my frustration at trying to sift through campaign commercials and talking points to find out where the candidates for president really stand on issues that are important to you. Part of the problem is Mitt Romney’s habit of changing his positions to suit his audience.
One thing he can’t change is his record. I had a front-row seat for Romney’s term as governor of Massachusetts. His p
Wall Street Beat: Earnings point to tough quarter for tech
Some of the biggest names in tech reported quarterly earnings this week, and the resulting picture is not pretty. The main culprit for the weak earnings reported this week is a slump in the PC market, but uncertainty about the global economy is weighing down almost all sectors of IT.
Disappointing, or at best mixed, quarterly results were turned in this week by Microsoft, Google, Advanced Micro Devices, Intel and IBM. Share prices of every one of those vendors declined Friday. The financial results, coupled with the uncertainty about the economy, has shaken confidence in tech. Even shares of the mighty Apple declined Friday by US$22.80 to $609.84.
The Nasdaq Computer Index dropped 41.16 points to 1569.96 Friday afternoon, a day after Google, AMD and Microsoft issued their earnings.
Join the Union Plus Scavenger Hunt
If you missed the start of the Union Plus Scavenger Hunt, there’s still time to play. On Monday mornings through Nov. 5, Union Plus will provide a clue relating to a union member benefit. All you have to do is either text or email the correct answer by midnight of Thursday of that week.
Each week, a $25 Entertainment Discount E-Certificate will be awarded. A $150 Grand Prize Entertainment Discount E-Certificate will be awarded at the end of the Scavenger Hunt.
Go to the Union Plus blog to learn how to play.
Study reveals 10% pay gap between men and women in IT
Results from a study by the Australian Computer Society released today reveal that almost a third of ICT job seekers believe they have been discriminated against, based on gender, age, ethnicity or other factors, when applying for positions in the sector.